


Let’s Go Back to A Priori

by limpinglumpy



Series: July 2020 Prompts_Adjectives [1]
Category: Day6 (Band)
Genre: Flatmates!Au, Gen, Other, coworkers!au, defendant!wonpil, lawyer!jae
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:54:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25018861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/limpinglumpy/pseuds/limpinglumpy
Summary: Jae and Wonpil have been co-workers as well as flatmates for 3 months, and Jae is kinda... Having a crisis. Is Wonpil as innocent as he thought?
Relationships: Kim Wonpil & Park Jaehyung | Jae
Series: July 2020 Prompts_Adjectives [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1811602
Kudos: 4





	Let’s Go Back to A Priori

**Author's Note:**

> a priori — (adj.) deductive, relating to or derived by reasoning from self-evident propositions, presupposed by experience; (adj.) being without examination or analysis [presumptive], formed or conceived beforehand
> 
> \- There’s no a priori reason to think that your expenses will remain the same in a new city.  
> \- An a priori argument for the defendant’s innocence
> 
> Music: Day6 – Tick Tock, Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Hysteric, Pierce the Veil – Floral and Fading, Jon Fratelli – Bright Night Flowers
> 
> (initial apologies for my novice writing)

_Tick._

**E** longated shadows spring over a blank wall, contrasting the light entering the window which gently rinses the living room in a gentle orange glow. Jae watches the clock tick over seconds. Minutes. He’s waiting for the anticipated event of everyday – the return of Wonpil to the flat they rented together after the incident with the law firm was over.

_Tock._

But there’s definitely something strange going on. Jae had begun cultivating suspicions about Wonpil’s (somehow questionable) innocence not too long after he helped the young defendant out with a case regarding some laundered bills, a hot-wired mustang, and a gunshot in the parking lot just down the street from Wonpil’s previous workplace. Now they’re in a new city making a new name for themselves at the local law firm — Jae as a lawyer, Wonpil as a desk worker. It’s a crappy law firm, too, but it’s not like either of them can find better occupations after Wonpil lost his reputation and Jae got laid off. To top it all off, they are constantly low on money.

But the money keeps flooding into their account right before rent is due every month.

At first, Jae had written it off as some strange stroke of luck. He’s always been especially prone to good fortune, so the whole “money falling from the sky” thing didn’t really ruffle his feathers at first. But when the same cycle continued for three months… That was a bit more suspicious. Then it began to seem as if, perhaps, someone was tampering with their income. And the only someone this could pertain to was Wonpil, right?

“It… It can’t be him, though,” Jae told himself thirty minutes earlier while picking up a book to pass the time between his return from work and Wonpil’s return from the supermarket. Wonpil was on constant food duty, while Jae took care of other home chores (which he didn’t mind doing, because he was happy as long as he was fed well). And it was all good and fine — until Jae noticed after being unable to focus on the book he had picked up:

“Wonpil takes care of all our purchases?!?”

At that exact moment, Jae realized with a jolt that he didn’t even have to pay for his own clothing and gas bills — they counted into the expenses covered by the card Wonpil set up for them. _And I’m **sure** that the money I personally deposited on it wouldn’t even be enough to eat three meals a day, let alone to fuel our car and buy a set of quality suits…_ And so he sat on the couch, mulling over this as the clock ate time and spat it out at him as ticks and tocks.

Now, the minute hand has pushed aside about a quarter of the clock face, and it’s finally seven. Wonpil appears in the doorway with an energetic grin blooming on his cheeks. His shaking hands, loaded with grocery bags, and tired, “Well… I can use some help, you know…” break Jae’s train of thought, and the lanky lawyer trains his eyes on the ridiculously endearing dongsaeng who was overly thankful for Jae’s assistance in the past (and still seems to be thankful, to quite some extent).

“Of course!”

The table is set, the groceries stored properly in the fridge for a later time, and they sit down for the ready fried chicken Wonpil had picked up while he was out. The food keeps Jae’s mind occupied for a while, and he only remembers his previous realizations while washing the dishes. The glow of the lowering sun on the shelves is what reminds him, warm orange seeping into his mind like the gentle licks of his dog softly tickling him awake in the morning when he visits his parents. His gloves are immediately torn from his hands, water stream is cut, and Jae readies himself for a serious conversation with his flatmate.

It’s time to get everything figured out.

Once his feet have carried him to Wonpil’s door, Jae proceeds to knock twice, loudly, like he always does when he has something serious to talk about. In the past, these conversations consisted of matters such as the water bill being heftier than usual because of Wonpil’s weekend baths or Jae being tired of asking Wonpil to put his shoes where they were supposed to go. This time, however, is the biggest deal Jae has ever even thought to talk to his flatmate about.

“Door’s open, hyung,” comes Wonpil’s call almost immediately.

Jae’s heart beats out two times, a couple smooth raps on wood. “Sure.” Then he lets himself in.

Wonpil’s sprawled out on his bed, blankets clustering around his form loyally. The AC blasts crazily, but perceptible beads of sweat still dot Wonpil’s brow. He sets aside the book he’s been reading and pushes away from his headboard to sit in proper lotus position. “What’s up, hyung?”

The casual way in which he says this brings Jae to push back the serious conversation he was readying himself for just seconds prior. “Why don’t you put away your blankets if it’s too hot?” he stalls.

“Oh, this?” Wonpil gives a good-natured laugh. “They’re soft. Plus, I’m too lazy.”

“Ah.” Jae feels more and more guilty by the second.

“But, hyung. That can’t be why you came. Right?”

Jae quivers in dread. _Oh, I can’t do it! I just can’t…_ Wonpil’s looking at him with those big, gentle eyes, the ones Jae just can’t pair with a criminal. Instead, they’re eyes that, somehow, can only belong to someone who genuinely wishes to do good without bringing pain or suffering to any party, be they good or bad. “W-Well… You see…”

“You’re not going to tell me you broke all the plates, are you?”

Wonpil’s tone lands in Jae’s ears, light and fluffy, and the setting sun paints bright orange lines on his cheeks as if caressing them. Jae turns away in shame. “It’s… It’s a bit more important than that. What I have to talk to you about, I mean.”

“I’m listening, hyung.”

Jae squeezes his eyes shut. Gets ready. Bursts out: “You’re not laundering money again, are you?!?” _No, wait— That wasn’t what I wanted to say—_

When he looks up, Wonpil’s gaze is downcast. The orange has left his cheeks, replaced with a faint brown streaked with gray shadows. “H-Hyung… I—” _He’s hurt—_ “I thought… You know better than anyone…”

“Pil…” Jae clearly sees the shift in Wonpil’s brows, indicating a coming storm. He doesn’t want to laugh in a situation like this, so he immediately rushes forward to sit beside Wonpil and pat his shoulder in reassurance. “Pil, I didn’t mean to just… Spit it out like that.” Jae can never take the transition from Wonpil’s normal state to his crying state, but it’s something that’s helped him calm down when he cried in the past. It just isn’t something he was able to adjust to, and now’s not the time to test if he can keep himself in check. He pats Wonpil’s shoulder again and strokes his hair a couple times. “Don’t cry. God, please don’t cry—”

The reassurances seem to work somehow, as Wonpil leans on his shoulder slightly and rubs at his dry cheeks. He looks uncomfortable, so Jae shifts slightly lower on the bed so that his shoulder balances more or less on his dongsaeng’s level.

The tick-tock of the clock hanging on the living room wall is audible in the sudden silence. Its nerve-wracking ticks bathe the air in slight suspense, but the moody atmosphere seems to only disperse with each passing second. A short while later, Jae notices that the ticks have become more relieving than pressuring. Around that time, Wonpil seems to calm down. Jae pats his head one last time, and Wonpil looks over at him with a pout. “Do I… Why are you suddenly saying something like that?”

Jae bites around his words for a short while, picking out which ones would be right to use. _Don’t want a repeat of last time…_ “Well…” His fingers twitch when the sound comes out with a crack. “Ah, sorry. Um. It just, it seems kinda… obvious??”

“That I’ve been up to my old ways?”

“Yeah.”

“Then what’s obvious about **me**?”

Jae nips at his lip, eyes shifting. “That you’re innocent.”

“Then isn’t it also obvious that I’m not guilty? And that the allegations you’re placing on me right now are also, by default, not true?”

Jae pauses for a moment, then comes back with a more assured reply. “But these are all just assumptions! How do I know they’re fact if all of this is just a priori?”

Wonpil looks like he’ll cry again. Jae gets ready to hold in his breath when his dongsaeng suddenly leaps off the bed and runs over to his closet. After rooting around a bit, Wonpil returns to Jae’s side, carrying a familiar folder. “Then why did you go through all this trouble back then?”

Jae looks at the folder containing all of the papers from Wonpil’s case from a few months ago. “Cause I was sure back then. Of your innocence.”

“So, has anything changed?”

Wonpil’s sad eyes follow Jae out of the room.

Jae calls Brian that night. “What’s wrong this time?”

“Tell me. How was Wonpil before he moved in with me?”

Brian’s small sigh comes crackly across the line. “He helped me through a hard time, for real though.”

“Yeah?”

“No, no **really**. I would’ve been in a ditch right now if not for him.”

“Why’s that?”

“His family’s stoked. Parents own a piano chain. Sister has a successful business of her own. Then someone found out about who his grandparents are and framed the poor guy. Didn’t you look into this? You were his defense lawyer, right?”

Jae looks on, stumped. “What do you— What fortune?..”

“His grandpop was a successful investor. Ever heard of K Company?” He had. “Well, Pil’s aunt is the CEO, now, and he’s a total auntie’s boy. Helps her out with any cases she gets caught up in if they’re lawful on her side, and she helps him out with expenses in return.” Brian’s tone suddenly becomes a bit softer. “Anyway, he gets attached easily. Likes to care for others. Doesn’t matter if they’re a hyung, a dongsaeng, or what... I’ll never be able to pay him back for all he’s helped me with. What, did he do something to upset you or something?”

Jae let out a long breath. “No. I… I was the one who upset him.” Jae fiddles his fingers over his lip, then decisively nods. “I understand everything, now.”

“Is that so?”

“Why’d I have to find out from you, though, of all people?”

A huff of a laugh sounds from the other end. “Yeah. Why’d it have to be **me** , his ex-deskmate, his best friend from way back when?”

“I **mean** , why didn’t he tell me himself?”

“Cause maybe then you wouldn’t want to move in with him and let him show his gratitude how he’s used to doing?”

And finally everything clicks. Jae curses himself for being so impulsive. “I’ll go talk to him, now.”

“You do that. I have some paperwork to get on with, cheers.”

The clock ticks once above Jae’s head.

_Tick._

The call drops, and so does his hand, still holding on to his cell phone. A sigh follows suit.

_Tock._


End file.
